Grammys 2016: All the winners as they happen
IT WAS the David Bowie tribute everyone was waiting for. And in an orange wig and white jumpsuit, Lady Gaga nailed a medley of the late legend’s hits.
THE 2016 Grammys have wrapped and the gongs have been handed out.
Throughout the three and a half-hour ceremony, fans were treated to Gaga’s epic musical tribute to David Bowie, a dud Adele performance and a couple of disappointing no-shows. Oh, and Sofia Vergara in a cardboard taxi.
Grammys 2016: All the red carpet looks
Swift kicked off proceedings with an energetic rendition of 1989 album highlight Out Of The Woods, resplendent in glittery jumpsuit (very Blades of Glory, if we may say so) and the brand new bob haircut she’d earlier debuted on the red carpet (with bestie Selena Gomez in tow).
LL Cool J was hardly up there with Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais when it came to delivering a laughs-aplenty opening monologue, throwing out inoffensive bon mots like “We love music!” and “This is the Grammys!”. Illuminating stuff.
First award of the night, and it’s ...
Best Rap Album
2014 Forest Hills Drive — J Cole
Compton — Dr Dre
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late — Drake
To Pimp a Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar
The Pinkprint — Nicki Minaj
And the winner is ... Kendrick Lamar. No surprises there — Kendrick’s is one of the most critically-lauded albums of the past 12 months. Expect to see him up here a few more times tonight.
We’ve seen performances so far from pop-R&B singer The Weeknd, who delivered a medley of hits from his current album Beauty Behind The Madness, and country singer Sam Hunt, who performed a duet with Carrie Underwood. Sam’s relatively unknown to Australian audiences, but after his tight-T-shirt clad performance today, he may just have scored a few new fans:
Brit singer Ellie Goulding also teamed up with rising R&B singer Andra Day for an inspired mashup of two of their respective singles, Love Me Like You Do and Rise Up.
Time for another award now, and it’s ...
Best country album
Montevallo — Sam Hunt
Pain Killer — Little Big Town
The Blade — Ashley Monroe
Pageant Material — Kacey Musgraves
Traveller — Chris Stapleton
Can our new favourite man Sam Hunt take it out? Or the brilliant Kacey Musgraves (seriously, get into her Pageant Material — one of the best albums of last year)? Nope, it’s Chris Stapleton. Nuh, we’re not too sure either.
Stars including John Legend, Demi Lovato, Meghan Trainor and more deliver a musical tribute to Lionel Richie, looking on adoringly from the audience. Legend nails a rendition of The Commodores’ early hit Easy, but it’s Lovato who steals the show with a passionate snippet of Richie’s biggest hit, Hello. Of course, that is until Richie himself leapt on stage to close the performance with a rendition of the 80s pop classic All Night Long.
Sad news for Rihanna fans keen to hear the debut performance of a track from her new album ANTi: the singer was due to perform tonight but was a late cancellation, reportedly due to bronchitis — and ain’t nobody got time for dat. Ri-Ri was at the venue earlier today, but has now left.
Lauryn Hill also pulled the pin on her scheduled performance with The Weeknd. Representatives for the ‘90s R&B singer put it down to poor communication.
“The Grammy’s announced a performance by Ms. Lauryn Hill prematurely and without approval,” they said in a statement.
Stevie Wonder leads a musical tribute to Maurice White, frontman of disco-soul pioneers Earth, Wind & Fire, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 74.
Wonder delivered a magnetic, entirely a capella performance, backed by a capella group Pentatonix.
Now it’s a big one:
Song of the Year
Alright — Kendrick Lamar
Blank Space — Taylor Swift
Girl Crush — Little Big Town
See You Again — Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
Thinking Out Loud — Ed Sheeran
And the winner is ... Ed Sheeran. Shout out Wonder, who announced the award thanks to an envelope with the winner’s name in braille. “You can’t read braille, ner-ner-ner!” Wonder teased his fellow presenters.
Nailed It #StevieWonder -- So perfectly done! @wusa9 @947FreshFM #Grammys -- Showing this to my @BestBuddies pic.twitter.com/4dWmnBjWa4
— Tommy McFLY (@TommyMcFLY) February 16, 2016
Sheeran may have won — and delivered a typically self-deprecating speech, saying he comes every year and “never wins everything”, but it was fellow nominee Taylor Swift who pulled focus, jumping up and reacting to her ‘squad member’s win. At one point she seemed like she was about to take the stage herself.
Aww! Taylor Swift is super excited for her buddy Ed Sheeran's #Grammys win. Can you tell? pic.twitter.com/w6pnY0hQlt
— E! Online (@eonline) February 16, 2016
Why is Taylor Swift acting like she's Ed's mom lol
— Justin Bieber (@bieberinmypants) February 16, 2016
Spare a thought for Sheeran’s co-writer, Amy Wadge, who approached the microphone to say a few words after he’d spoken — and was immediately cut off as the ceremony moved on to a musical tribute to late Eagles member Glenn Frey.
Then it’s time for another performance in this music-heavy show, and a Grammys first: the cast of hit Broadway show Hamilton beam in live from New York for a performance of one of the highlights of the musical.
Kendrick Lamar — who already won an early award for Best Rap Album — is up next, delivering a blistering, politically charged medley of highlights from his outstanding album To Pimp A Butterfly, starting in a jailhouse and ending with a giant bonfire onstage.
Surrounded by rather staid musical interludes and polite tributes, it’s a contender for performance of the night. Raw, rough and exciting — something sorely lacking from these Grammys so far.
As this year marks 35 years since Michael Jackson won his first Grammy Award, Miguel performed a short tribute to the King of Pop before presenting the gong for Best Rock Performance.
Best Rock Performance
Don’t Wanna Fight — Alabama Shakes
What Kind Of Man — Florence And The Machine
Something From Nothing — Foo Fighters
Ex’s and Oh’s — Elle king
Moaning Lisa Smile — Wolf Alice
And Alabama Shakes take it home.
Fresh from his explosive performance at the Super Bowl last week, Bruno Mars hits the stage to introduce Adele to the stage. One of the most anticipated performances of the night, she performed the second single from her record breaking latest album, All I Ask. But unfortunately, it failed to match expectations.
Viewers were less than impressed with the sound quality, which appeared to drop out through the performance. An out of tune guitar was also called out on social media — as well as Adele’s vocals.
Did anyone else notice the sound problems during @Adele's performance? #Grammys pic.twitter.com/EWXPg18xxb
— Wetpaint (@WetpaintTV) February 16, 2016
Adele. Was. Flat. Yeah, you know you thought it, too. https://t.co/XqlNGhQCvb https://t.co/XqeVkpUszH
— Lavanya Ramanathan (@lalamasala) February 16, 2016
Adele is badly missing some notes here #GRAMMYs
— Gurshaan Singh Pabla (@Gurshabba) February 16, 2016
What's with the out of tune guitar or whatever it is during Adele's set? It's hurting my ears. #GRAMMYs #Grammys2016
— Christi Beard (@concertchicklsu) February 16, 2016
You can see it on @Adele's face, someone about to get fired/bitched at.#GRAMMYs
— Carles Casado (@carlescasado) February 16, 2016
The sound people have one job. Sound. Adele failure. #GRAMMYs
— Penny H (@femaleparent) February 16, 2016
Justin Bieber continued to take it down a notch by performing an acoustic version of Love Yourself before a band joined him for Where Are You Now.
Anticipation builds when it comes time for the Best New Artist category.
Best New Artist
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Meghan Trainor
While Melbourne singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett was a favourite to take the gong home, it’s Meghan Trainor who wins. The Dear Future Husband singer sobbed through her short and sweet speech.
Taking to the stage for her much hyped David Bowie musical tribute, Lady Gaga nailed a medley of the late legend’s hits including Space Oditity, Changes, Rebel Rebel and Fashion.
In a lower key, Gaga powered through the androgynous performance with pushed back orange hair and a sequined white jump suit. And fans were impressed.
Incredible, Gaga.https://t.co/vJgzEcvdqx
— billboard (@billboard) February 16, 2016
.@ladygaga, that was so great. You're always going to another level. #GRAMMYs
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) February 16, 2016
lord please let me die before lady gaga because I don't ever wanna live in a world without her
— savana (@imnotsavana) February 16, 2016
Following Gaga’s epic tribute, American Blues singer Bonnie Rait honoured Ruth Brown with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Introducing Chris Stapleton, Rait joined him midway during his performance.
Just when we start wondering what happened to our host LL Cool J, he pops back up on stage to introduce rockers Alabama Shakes and their performance of Don’t Wanna Fight. The band won the Best Rock Performance gong earlier in the night for the same song.
Switching gears, Foo Fighter’s frontman Dave Grohl introduces Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joel Perry’s supergroup Hollywood Vampires to the stage. In case you didn’t know, the band honours the songs of rockers who died in the ‘70s.
And it’s that time of night for the In Memoriam reel. Among the list of musicians honoured are David Bowie, Scott Weiland from the Stone Temple Pilots, Natalie Cole and Percy Sledge.
It’s getting late and it’s time to dish out the final awards ...
Album Of The Year
Alabama Shakes — Sound and Colour
Chris Stapleton — Traveller
Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly
Taylor Swift — 1989
The Weeknd — Beauty Behind The Madness
Tay Tay takes it out. After doing her trademark “surprise” face, she hugs Selena Gomez (who’s 2IC in the squad) and runs up on stage.
“I wanna thank the fans for the last ten years,” she begins.
“As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there — there are going to be people along the way will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you will look around and you will know that it was you and the people who loved you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
Winding up the night, Beyonce descends on the stage to present Record Of The Year. The audience is in awe of her presence and her feet may or may not be levitating off the ground just a little bit.
Record Of The Year
D’Angelo And The Vanguard — Really Love
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars — Uptown Funk
Ed Sheeran — Thinking Out Loud
Taylor Swift — Blank Space
The Weeknd — Can’t Feel My Face
A close race, but Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars scored the gong for their funk-inspired global smash Uptown Funk.
The awards close with an enthusiastic performance by Pitbull, Robin Thicke and Travis Barker. And Sofia Vergara in a cardboard taxi.
Grammys producer speaks on naked stunt
With the world still stunned by Bianca Censori’s basically-nude Grammy’s outfit, the event’s executive producer has finally weighed in.
Kanye erupts over Censori’s nude stunt
Kanye West has had major beef with his social media followers over a since-deleted post about his wife’s nude stunt at the Grammys.
Star slams rapper at Grammys after-party
One of the Grammys’ standout performers gave a searing serve to a famous rapper who performed at Trump’s inauguration ball.